Well my SOS was answered and the blocks have arrived, so all that was left to do was put them in. Here it is the first compost bin finished.
Later on it will get some wooden slats at the front to hold it all back in, but for now it’s ready to take the compost that we have.
Looking at the side you can see part of the second bin starting to take shape, this will be finished at some point in the future.
Well June is here and soon it will be the end of the school year and the start of the lean two months when we don’t have any income coming in, so to help with this we are growing a lot of our own veg. Here is a general view of the whole garden.
Carrots, onions and beetroot are all doing well. With another set about to go in, We have had some trouble with cut worms, a type of moth caterpillar which likes to live in the soil and then pop up and chew through your plant just at the point where the soil ends. Very annoying and hard to find and remove.
Here's a wider shot with the previous crops in the foreground and further back the peppers and then the tomatoes. The first lot of peppers we put in didn’t survive, but we think that it was due to the fact that after we brought the plants that we went to visit some friends and left them in the car and we think they got too hot.
The leeks continue to do well, but the lettuces suffered a bit from the damp weather we have had, and some pest problems (slugs and snails). Also the courgettes aren’t doing well due to the weather and the lack of male flowers, meaning they aren’t producing much at present.
Early days at present with the cucumbers, we haven't got anything from them yet.
The tomatoes are taking over and going crazy.
Meep goes to investigate the strange clumps that have appeared at the bottom of the garden, those are the Calabazas Meep.
OK, more blocks added to the compost bin, only one slight problem we now have run out of blocks, So I sent a quick SOS to our friends Ann & David and hopefully in a few days we might have some more arrive.
Also our existing compost heap seems to be growing calabazas (Pumpkins) which is good because we will just dig these out and plant them elsewhere in the garden.
Today we started to make the first of the compost bins, having poured the foundations previously now it was just a matter of laying in the blocks. Just one barrow load of cement just to lay in the first row and a bit.
Then just load of concrete just to slide in under the front of the house where over the years the water flow down the path has excavated a small hole under the foundations of the house, which they thought was on solid rock, but after a while exposed to the weather just disintegrates.
As we mentioned in onions, leeks and sweet potatoes, back in February we planted a load of veg, well today we picked one of the leeks for dinner and were surprised that it was over a foot long, and as a bonus it tasted good too.
Today for the first time in what seems like ages we mixed a little concrete not very much just a couple of loads, but it was enough for a couple of jobs.
The first lot went into the foundations for the compost bins, we are going to build a couple of compost bins about 1m3, made from blocks, these bins are also going the help to support the terrace wall in this area which in the past had a tree growing from it and so is a little unstable. You can see our existing compost heap in the right of the photo.
The other area was to just finish off around the drains which we put in before we laid the patio. This needed doing so we could rearrange some to the pipe work which holds up the vines, so we can later in the year put up the gazebo again.
I came back from work to day to a shocking sight.. A row of deep black holes in my nice freshly painted wall.
What are all these black holes for?
Ah, it’s OK there are for mounting the shelf brackets.
Yes the holes had been drilled to start mounting the shelves that will run the entire length of one wall of the office, these shelves will hold a lot of our computing books and two racks of storage tubs. This will provide a lot of storage which is one thing that we lack in the house.
So with the shelves done the only thing left to do was to move everything back in, which wasn’t that easy as we had a lot to fit in which took a bit of fiddling to find places for everything, and still leave room to work. It’s not perfect but over the next few years we will change the book shelves and desks as money becomes available, but the office in now functional and open for business.
Helen’s desk
Theresa’s desk
The book shelves
Well after yesterdays exertions moving all that earth, today it was time for something a little lighter. There were a couple of areas that needed a further coat of paint, I had made sure that the area where the bookshelves were going had at least 2 coats, but the other side still had a few areas that had yet to have a second coat.
There that looks better with out the crack and the flaky paint
And this corner all neat and tidy
The book shelves in, the one against the window will move once we sort out the 12v power outlet.
The door out to the kitchen.
Now where is all this going to go?
And this lot too!!!
Today we have had Sheila and family over to help with things in the house, Sheila helped me move a book case, into the office (well I directed and Sheila moved books).
Carlos (Sheila's husband) moved soil outside to infill the lower patio. Carlos is great, you just give him a shovel and beer and he just keeps on moving soil…
We need to raise the level of the lower “patio” by about a meter at one end. I think Carlos and Theresa moved about 1.5 m3 and raised the level by around 20cm still a long way to go but a very good start.
And here is what they have done.
A big “thank you” to Sheila and Carlos from us, for this help.
Before we could paint the office we needed to do a fair amount of patching, some of the walls and the ceiling were cracked, and had paint flaking off. One place in particular was a patch of the ceiling where in the past we have had some water come in.
The bad patch on the ceiling.
Looks better with a little plaster.
After the plaster had dried it was time , to put on some paint, unfortunately the paint was a little old and had gone a bit thick, even mixing in a little water didn’t help to much. So the paint didn’t go very far, I managed to put one coat on the ceiling and about half the walls, before I ran out of paint.
The one problem with the new office is that it doesn’t have any power. The old bedroom only ever had 12v lights and we had never got round to putting in the mains power sockets. It was Ok to run the bedroom of an extension socket but running the stuff for the office wouldn’t be a good idea, so we have to put in some sockets. So time to get out the hammer and chisel and get to work, I just hope there aren’t to many large rocks in these walls.
Should be one at this end, OK back to work
Once the holes were cut out for the boxes, which had to be done carefully by hand so as not to make to much mess of the wall. Then it was time to break out the power tools. Awhile ago we brought a tool for the SDS drill which cuts a channel ready for conduit. This made short work of cutting the channels down to the floor, where we drilled through to down stairs where the power will be fed from.
All the cutting out done now, time to fit the boxes.
Once all the cutting and drilling was done it was time to put the boxes into the wall, This is done with plaster of Paris, which sets very quickly. To make sure the boxes for the sockets are level we use our wooden jig which holds the boxes in place while the plaster sets.
Boxes in, jig also makes sure that all boxes are in line.
and the one at the other end.
As we are moving things around we need to reroute a couple of the network connections, one of these is in the dining room but we can sneak a new conduit in through the back of the wall.
A connection sneaked through the back of the wall.
All the boxes fitted and ready for cement render.
Now it time to mix up a little cement to fill in the channels we cut for the conduit. Once done this will need a few days to dry before we can apply the final coat of plaster.
All done, now needs to dry.
I just thought I would post a few photos to show how things are doing in the garden. The leeks are doing well, should have some to eat in a month or so, The lettuces are coming a long well thought they seem to be very biter. A quick Google and the answer is, they are getting to hot so need more shade… also putting them in the fridge for a day or so before eating will help. We should have our first courgettes soon. See the photo below.
The first of the summer cabbages are coming a long well and are ready to eat now although they are quite small at the moment .
Now that our bedroom has been moved we have an empty room (and a house full of stuff needing a home). So we need to do a quick change job on the old bed room and change it into an Office (it will also double as the spare bedroom when we have guests over).
We (Should I say Theresa) has given the room a good clean to get rid of all the muck (and mould), now all we have to do is add some power points, fill the cracks and paint. Once that is done we can move the shelves back in, put up some new ones (to keep stack and store tubs on) and then add make shift desks. Should be a synch in 5 days with one of us limited to directing and doing only small bits…..
For some time we have been thinking about moving our bedroom into what was meant to be the “Library”. We have been in the current bedroom since we moved in as it was the only room in the house that was a reasonable room. Now it is the only room that has not been redecorated, (excluding the kitchen and the new bathroom that are stopped for lack of funds).
So as Theresa is off for Easter we decided to move bedrooms and change our current bedroom into an Office/Spare bedroom. The only problem is that since I have had the heath problems I can not seem to do much so Theresa needs to do most of the work. I managed to move one of the shelving units full of books earlier this week And then could do nothing more.
But I had to help her today with all the cleaning and moving of furniture. What a nice way to spend my Birthday! But the room Does look nice.
One other reason for the move is that the library had two windows one to the north and one to the east, both with very good views, wich makes the room very light and airy.
The new bedroom is very nice but all the junk that was in the room before is now distributed around the house.
Now to start on the renovation work to turn the old bedroom into an office.
